Extraordinary moments

A friend shared this quote with me and I liked it so much I thought I'd share it here with you.

"Extraordinary moments can happen in the middle of ordinary days. I was on a mother-daughter dinner date with Calli, who was nine at the time. Through a mouthful of macaroni and cheese, Calli giggled as she recounted a game of freeze tag she played during recess that day. Then it hit me... I will spend eternity knowing Calli as an adult. But tonight, right here, right now, and for the next few precious years, I have the rare privilege of knowing her as a child. What a gift to experience the children in our lives as children! For a brief moment during the journey of mortality, we get to watch them laugh, learn, experience, grow. Yes, in the middle of an ordinary day, it was an extraordinary moment." -Hilary Weeks

Put The Castle In First

My daughter Kenzington has a darling little Disney play set. It has a tiny little version of many of the rides you would find at Disneyland (including teacups!) and lots of teeny tiny Disney Characters. The set also has an amazing castle. Kenz stores this set in a snap-top box that is just the right size. In fact, it is so perfectly sized for the set that if the pieces don't go in just right, the lid won't go on and close. She often attempts to put the set away and ends up very frustrated! Things just aren't working! She can't get it all in and get the lid on. Then I hear myself saying to her,
"Put the castle in first, the rest will fit in around it."

I'm guessing you already know what I'm getting at here; how this all relates to life, but perhaps, if only for myself, I need to clap it all out and finish drawing the analogy. Bear with me now!

We came to this earth for a number of reasons:

• To get a body
• To be tested
• To have children
• To fulfill a purpose

The overall goal of life is to live worthy to return to our Father in Heaven.

I think that SOMETIMES we get mixed up and mistake real life for a real life version of the GAME of LIFE. You know- the board game where the overall goal is:

• to zip through school
• to get the best job
• to fill your car with family
• to fill your bank account!
• to sell the skunk farm!
• to retire in Millionaire Estates or Countryside Acres.

REAL LIFE has to include many of those things, (hopefully not the skunk farm!) which is partly why it's easy to get mixed up about what REAL LIFE'S overall goal is. We spend so much time trying to make the journey through life better that we forget to move toward the REAL overall goal. In fact, many times we've forgotten what the REAL overall goal is and we're not going anywhere at all, just winding back and forth like on the board-game.

So here it comes- the secret to doing it right:

PUT THE CASTLE IN FIRST!

The Castle is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is attending ALL of our church meetings. It is repenting when we mess up. It is studying our scriptures and praying. It is having family home evening. It is attending the temple. It is serving other people. It is reminding others, some who might not even know about the castle, to put it in first.

And guess what?

When we put it in first, all the other little WORTH-WHILE things that are also a part of this experience we call LIFE fit in around it.

Cute girl hairstyles!

My sister told me about this website  that she uses a lot to come up with cute hairstyles for her daugther.  i thought those who were at the Super Saturday and were interested in the hair class might be interested in this.  I am probably talking to myself since nobody gets on the site anymore.

Fabric choices for Super Saturday

Here are the fabric choices for the aprons, trivits, hot pads and towels.

Here is a reminder of how the aprons look.

Spelling city

I found a neat website that helps your kids with your spelling and vocab word lists. You can enter their words and they can play games, take practice tests etc. throughout the week to help them learn their words.  Spellingcity.com

Interesting article

I thought this article was interesting. You can read it here.  

Reminder!

Don't forget Bountiful Baskets! 8 pm!

My Attempts At A Menu...

Let's see how well we do... Some repeats of super easies on the nights I have class and Dave is making dinner. I don't know if you can even read this!

Menu

Alrighty! I've soooo got to be better at making menus. It's not hard, really. I don't know why I struggle with it. Hopefully with the kids back in school I can make it happen.

Here's what I've come up with for the upcoming week. I'm trying hard to use what we have and shop sparingly.

Sunday- Pot roast, carrots, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls
Monday- Pork chops, spaghetti squash, rolls (hopefully there are some left!)
Tuesday- Taco salad
Wednesday- Kabobs, rice
Thursday- Teriyaki chicken and rice
Friday- Pizza, salad, breadstix
Saturday- Hot dogs

Nothing too exciting, but I have almost everything on hand. It already feels good to have a plan!

So whatcha fixin?

For anyone interested there is a lady that is bringing apples, pears and peaches down from Washington state on Monday here is the stats if you want to get in on it:::

Call Christy Roberts 884-0658 or email christyroberts88@yahoo.com
or acjj@qwest.net BEFORE Saturday (TOMORROW) afternoon and let her know you want any of the following:

Apples 20 lb case for $15 (gala, Golden Supreme, Jonothan)
Pears 20 lb for $17 not sure of variety
Peaches 20 lb for $17 (john henry variety)

Cherry/Apple fresh squeezed juice $5.50 a gallon -- $3.50 a half gallon
Apple juice $3.50 half gallon
Dried sweetened pie cherries 7 oz $3.50 -- 5 lbs $35.00

Sounds like you will just pay at pick up call Christy for further info :)

Pressure cooker

So I am embarressed to say that I had never used a pressure cooker in my whole adult life until yesterday!  My mom bought me one a few years ago and I did not even open the box until yesterday.  My mom used one a lot while I was growing up, but I had it in my mind that you used it only for canning and cooking beans etc. and it seemed like it was too complicated to use, but I ran across this article  and after reading it I realized that I never really understood the true function of a pressure cooker.  I decided to finally pull mine out of storage and literally blow the dust off the top of the still sealed box.  I looked up pressure cooker recipes online and found that there were tons of things you can make with a pressure cooker.  I finally decided on a simple recipe for pot roast.  I pulled a pot roast out of my deep freezer around noon and let it thaw out.  by the time I decided to start cooking it around 5:00 pm  It was still a little frozen so I was unsure if it would work out, but within 1 hour I had a fully cooked super tender pot roast :-) I was in shock!  It was tender like it had been in a crock pot all day, but in a fraction of the time!  I've decided that my pressure cooker is my new best friend in the kitchen!  Here is another good website to get recipes and info on how to use a pressure cooker

Michelle

Mother Earth news

Valerie,
I thought you might interested in this article on the Mother Earth News website.  It  reminded me of  the challenge that you are doing.
Michelle

Bountiful Baskets!

FRIENDLY REMINDER TO ORDER YOUR BOUNTIFUL BASKET RIGHT NOW!

Sneak peek at one of our Super Saturday crafts

Check out the cute bow/flower holder I made today that we will be making on Super Saturday as one of the crafts :-)  I am pretty pleased at how it turned out!
Valerie, I hope it is ok that I am giving people a pre-peek :-)

Eggs!

So I now have 4 chickens laying eggs now!  My Road Island reds started laying the last couple of days so now I am getting the pretty brown eggs too :-) If I still had a question in my mind that I might be turning a little bit crazy by having my own laying hens it was pushed out with this recent egg recall that is in the news.
We had eggs and toast this morning and it was comforting to know that our eggs are safe and that they came from happy chickens that have a enough space to move and graze around and that they are not being pumped up full of hormones and antibiotics.
Another crazy idea I have been thinking of lately is edible landscaping.  Shauna Colvin (my hero) got me started on this idea and I have been reading up on it and there are people out there who utilize their whole yard by mixing edible plants with decorative plants in the front and back.  Like that grass strip that everyone has in front  of their houses that usually has grass that has no purpose and so water is wasted keeping it green.  You can instead plant an edible ground cover like strawberries or put in small fruit bushes like currant bushes etc.  I am thinking about making some small changes in that direction next spring.

HellOo! (Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!)

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho! We sent them off to school!

And so???

How DID your MORNING go???

Don'tcha just LOVE trying to figure out the new norm?

Which way is up? Anyhow???

What's your "TOMORROW I'll know to do __________ differently" story???
What are your best "Things went well today because I remembered to __________" hints???

And last but not least, did you remember to purchase Bon-Bons so you could sit around on the couch eating them with your naked-toes up on the coffee table once those kiddos were gone?

Menu Planning Spreadsheet!

This morning I found a LOVELY jewel of a download that I just had to share! It's a monthly menu-planner spreadsheet with a page for shopping lists etc.! You can find it HERE by scrolling down to the rectangle toward the bottom- it's the last one but the others are good, too!

I'm a little sad that none of you took on my CHALLENGE. (Boo-hooo!!!!)

Oh well! I'm off for my final shopping trip to last me a MONTH! I'm excited to save time AND money! And I LOVE a challenge!

CHALLENGE- (pay attention, there's PRIZES!)

Okay- so I'm challenging you ALL to go to my BLOG and sign up for my challenge! THERE'S PRIZES! (You know you want to!)

Bountiful Baskets!

Just a reminder- Bountiful Basket orders open up at 8 pm tonight for Saturday pick-up in Grantsville at 7 am.

Dinner Rolls & Yummy Pull-Aparts!

Much apologies for not posting this sooner! These are SOOO yummy and SOOO easy!

Shauna Colvin’s Dinner Rolls

2 cups scalded milk (or better yet, 1 cup evaporated milk and 1 cup hottest tap water!)

¾ cup warm water

1 cube margarine, melted

***(you want the temperature of all the above liquids to be 90°-100° or about baby bottle temperature. So if you scald the milk or overheat the margarine, use cold water instead of warm water etc.)***

2 large eggs

½ cup sugar

2 tsp. salt

4 cups flour

2 Tbs. yeast

Add the ingredients in the order listed above, whisking in the eggs and adding the yeast on TOP of the flour (to shield it from the salt). Add 3-4 more cups flour, a ½ cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead for 7 minutes. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Squeeze off balls of dough about 2 ¼ inches in diameter. Place about ½ inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Preheat oven to 400°. Cover dough with warm wet towel and let rise about 20 minutes or until double. Bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter and cover with a towel until serving. Here's a little video to show you how Shauna shaped the dough balls!

Shauna’s Sticky Pull-Apart Ring

Make Shauna’s dinner roll dough above. Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a Bundt pan with cooking spray. Place a ring of 2 ¼ inch balls of dough in the Bundt pan (usually there is a wider section every inch or so). Next place a second ring of dough balls in between each ball from the original ring. Sprinkle ½ of a small package of cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix evenly over the dough. Melt ¾ cube of margarine in the microwave. Mix ½ cup light brown sugar in with margarine. Pour the mixture over the roll dough. Cover with a warm damp towel and let rise about 15 minutes or until double. Bake about 20 minutes in 400° oven. Dump out immediately onto a serving plate and serve!

Shauna’s Italian Pull-Apart Ring

1 cube butter

1/8 tsp. dried minced garlic OR one clove fresh garlic

Make Shauna’s dinner roll dough above. Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a Bundt pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle pan with parmesan cheese. Dip 2 ¼ inch balls of dough in melted garlic butter and place in a ring around the bottom of the Bundt pan (usually there is a wider section every inch or so). Next place a second ring of buttered dough balls in between each ball from the original ring. Sprinkle more parmesan cheese evenly over top of dough balls. Pour remaining garlic butter evenly over top. Cover with a warm damp towel and let rise about 15 minutes or until double. Bake about 20 minutes in 400° oven. Dump out immediately onto a serving plate and serve!